You live by your big stars, and you die by your big stars.
The Massachusetts men’s basketball team doesn’t have an endless bench like Florida, Illinois or North Carolina. Coach James ‘Bruiser’ Flint can’t make substitutions at will and beat any given opponent with eight to 10 different guys.
He has a handful (barely) of talented impact players, and a bunch of solid ‘team’ guys who know their roles and how they can chip in to the Maroon and White effort. So when the Minutemen are savoring victory, it’s usually the same two or three guys who are consistently making the big plays.
And when they’re tasting defeat, it’s usually those same guys who aren’t.
When UMass watches the tape of its 89-76 loss to the Flyers of Dayton at UD Arena last night, two players are going to be painfully reminded of the early season demons that they had worked so hard to exorcise. Throughout the team’s 2-9 nightmare, Monty Mack struggled to find his stroke and Kitwana Rhymer strained to stay out of foul trouble and remain on the floor.
Last night, both players suffered some sort of roundball relapse and the Maroon and White faithful learned just how crucial these two guys are to the team’s success.
Mack entered the game 20 points shy of 2,000 for his career, and perhaps that impending milestone somehow disrupted the All-American shooting guard’s concentration. After stroking a three amidst an early 8-0 UMass run, Mack went from marksman to mason and began lofting bricks like it was his job. His last two shots of the first half were an airball three attempt and a wild spinning lane prayer that also missed badly.
By the time the Minutemen loped off the court on the short end of a 43-31 score, Mack had already misfired on 12 of 15 field goal attempts.
Rhymer, on the other hand, took himself out of the game before he had a chance to make any sort of impact whatsoever. It’s possible that the fiery center was salivating at the chance to bully UD’s undersized front line (he had 19 points and 13 rebounds in the teams’ Jan. 18 meeting), but two quick fouls put Rhymer on the bench to stay less than 10 minutes into the first half.
The Flyers responded to Rhymer’s absence by plundering the UMass middle for a bevy of easy baskets that spelled a 26-10 points-in-the-paint edge by halftime. UD sophomore forward Nate Green, who had managed only six points against the Minutemen earlier this year, used essentially the same up-and-under move to ring up and-ones on UMass’ Jackie Rogers and Eric Williams within a two-minute stretch.
‘Every time they got the ball inside, they either got fouled or scored,’ Flint said. ‘Kit got in early foul trouble and from that point on, we were never really in it.’
Green finished 6-of-8 from the field for 16 points, one of four Flyers in double figures.
The second half saw both players heat up with a spurt of glorious hoops that almost turned the tide back to the Minutemen. Rhymer was seemingly fired up when Green canned a left-hander right in front of him in the post; the UMass senior responded with a strong move to the hoop with Dayton’s Keith Waleskowski draped all over him for a three-point play that cut the deficit to 50-34.
Mack followed with successive threes, the first off an inbound play and the second in Flyer Tony Stanley’s eye at the top of the key. Rhymer then tore down a tough defensive board, leaving UMass with a chance to trim Dayton’s lead down to single digits with roughly 15 minutes to play.
But on the very next trip down the floor, Rhymer was whistled for his third foul trying to clear space under the hoop. Again the 6-foot-10 giant was banished to the bench, and again Dayton responded with easy inside hoops (courtesy of Yuanta Holland and Green) to push the game farther out of reach.
Rhymer’s line for the night: 19 minutes, five points, four fouls.
Mack’s frustration appeared to peak around the 4:10 mark, when his tentative three attempt in the right corner was blocked and turned into a transition bucket for the Flyers. The tri-captain committed his third turnover less than a minute later, after which Flint was slapped with a technical foul by referee Gary Bova. The coach was then T’d up again and tossed from the game with 1:29 to go.
‘I apologize for getting thrown out of the game,’ Flint said. ‘But it was frustrating; they were beating us up and down the floor.’
Mack did indeed reach the 2K plateau, swishing a pair of freebies and a final trifecta to finish with 23 on the night. But the glory must have indeed had a bitter aftertaste for the preseason Atlantic 10 Player of the Year, who connected on only 7-of-25 field goal attempts (6-of-16 from three) when the next closest Minuteman took less than half as many shots (Micah Brand, 7-of-10).
This loss can’t be pinned on any single player or trend within the game; there were really a whole bunch of places where the Minutemen just didn’t get the job done. But when you come to rely so heavily on the play of guys like Monty Mack and Kitwana Rhymer, off nights for them can translate into long nights and big losses for the team.
